Question: What happens when you invite four designers to take part in a garment-design exercise, then ask each to keep a journal of her creative process? Answer: You get four wonderful outfits, but more important, you discover bits of wisdom that can help all sewers turn on the creative juices when they want to use their techniques and talents in a special garment. That's exactly what we wanted to explore in setting up this experiment. So enjoy the ride-and add a creative to your next design.

Threads Design Challenge

Make believe that you'll travel to Paris, we said to the four designers Shown above), to give an important presentation to an audience of 100 fashion insiders. While in France, you'll also attend the wedding of an old friend, and, finally, a party on the sandy beaches of the French Riviera at Nice. Here's the challenge: there's space in your suitcase for only one outfit, which you need to design and sew following these rules:

• Use at least three of the fabrics pictured at left.
• Use only 3 yd. of any one fabric. (Every one of the designers protested, "How can I make an outfit from three little yards?" but we knew that this limitation would spark their imaginations.)
• Transform the fabrics with any manipulation or surface-design technique you like.
• Choose any pattern(s) to comprise a complete outfit.
• Plan for Europe's unpredictable fall weather, which alternates between warm sunshine and cold rainstorms.
• Don't use machine buttonholes. (We knew this, too, would provoke the designers' inventiveness.)